Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Music Culture) [Hardcover]

Jonathan Holt Shannon (Author)

Book Description

Series: Music Culture | Publication Date: June 5, 2006

How does a Middle Eastern community create a modern image through its expression of heritage and authenticity? In Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria, Jonathan H. Shannon investigates expressions of authenticity in Syria's musical culture, which is particularly known for embracing and preserving the Arab musical tradition, and which has seldom been researched in depth by Western scholars. Music plays a key role in the process of self-imaging by virtue of its ability to convey feeling and emotion, and Shannon explores a variety of performance genres, Sufi rituals, song lyrics, melodic modes, and aesthetic criteria. Shannon shows that although the music may evoke the old, the traditional, and the local, these are re-envisioned as signifiers of the modern national profile. A valuable contribution to the study of music and identity and to the ethnomusicology of the modern Middle East, Among the Jasmine Trees details this music and its reception for the first time, offering an original theoretical framework for understanding contemporary Arab culture, music, and society.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Among the Jasmine Trees is a hauntingly beautiful example of all that is best in contemporary anthropology and ethnomusicology and their mutual nexus with performance studies and the ideas of embodied knowledge."--Jonathan Zilberg, Jakarta Institute for the Arts, Leonardo Reviews

"Shannon provides an evocative and highly readable discussion of how music and discourse about music factor in processes of identity-formation in modern Syria."--Anne Elise Thomas, Ethnomusicology --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Both intellectually stimulating and delightfully engaging, the book stands out for its scholarly rigor and rich documentation. Shannon approaches his subject matter with keen musical sensibility and remarkable affinity for the community that he has studied." (A.J. Racy, author of Making Music in the Arab World ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan (June 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819567981
• ISBN-13: 978-0819567987
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #249,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > History > Middle East > Syria

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Music Culture), July 7, 2011

By 

Linda Shannon-rugel "Linda" (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Music Culture) (Hardcover)

This is a beautifully written, comprehensive study of music culture in the Arab world, in Syria. One walks with the author as he explores this ancient country and how music is intertwined in its contemporary culture.

5.0 out of 5 stars Culture Wars? Music within National Self-Image, July 30, 2009

By 

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel "World Music Explorer" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Music Culture) (Hardcover)

Jonathan Holt Shannon, author of this book, is an anthropologist whose research uses the performance, forms, and religious, political, and social aspects of music as the focus to examine the roles of traditions or heritage versus and modernity in Syria specifically, and also among Levantine Arabs. The conservative forces of authenticity are in conflict with the often liberal elite views of incorporating modern, i.e., European or Western classical and popular, structures in music. The problem arises from the very existence of Syria as a relatively new nation (1946) carved out of the centuries old Ottoman Empire. For a Mediterranean area at the crossroads of empires, East and West, authenticity is a highly moot matter among indigenous scholars, critics, and musicians. Aside some agrarian folk tunes and dances, perhaps, how much of Arabian music is truly Arabian when Turkish, Persian, Byzantine, Kurdish, Andalusian, and Syriac Christian influences are found? Even the oud is closely related to the Chinese pipa, lutes having developed, shared, and adopted along the length of the Silk Road. This book seems to present more questions than answers: a very good thing, since Orientialism and stereotypes have influenced Arabs and Western scholars alike. Even the number, names, and origins of maqam modes are debated.

Scholarly but highly readable, Among the Jasmin Trees is a perfect follow-up book to Racy's Making Music in the Arab World, Waugh's Memory, Music, and Religion, and Marcus's survey and documentary CD, Music in Egypt. The scholar-musician tells delightful anecdotes, and interviews with many Syrian experts send him, and us, on a grand tour of the complex musical and cultural issues confronting this people. If these questions seems esoteric and not germane to our own contemporary life, consider when and how the United States developed its own unique American (not including Native American) music after 1776. This surprising, worthwhile book has lessons for us as well. After reading it, Arabic music is no longer a simple category.

5.0 out of 5 stars A treat to read., January 19, 2009

By 

Brian "Jazz Lover" (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Contemporary Syria (Music Culture) (Hardcover)

This book on music and people deals with authenticity and its construction in a place where music is much more than just music. Scholarly in its orientation, it is written so clearly that one needn't be an ethnomusicologist or anthropologist to read it. It has important implications for the way that we all approach the aesthetics of our identity.